This book is amazing on many levels. Åsne Seierstad is a Norwegian journalist, who has reported and written books on Kosova and Afghanistan before, trying to tell the stories of “ordinary people” instead of just the big news. This book is about her personal experience as a reporter in Bagdad before, during and for a while after the war. She writes fascinating stories of life as a reporter in Baghdad under Saddams rule. The insane bureaucrasy. The people who refused to answer any questions directly, and simply quoted Saddam over and over again, no matter what she asked them. And the people who were genuinely proud of Saddam. And then the terrors of the war, the innocent people killed, the shock and terror of the iraqi people during the attacs. And that moment when they tore down the Saddam statue. When she saw Iraquis around her rejoicing and celebrating that the
terror of Saddams rule was finally over, while others were crying and feeling terrible about it.
Also it`s fascinating to read about the war journalists. She has covered the war in Kosova, Afghanistan and now Iraq, and she writes that she meets the same reporters in every war. They become friends, teach eachother how to best protect themselves in war and at the end when they left Iraq, they were waving and smiling saying “see you at the next war”. It`s absurd. But fascinating too, the way some pople voluntarily go through that, over and over again.